Pakistan Rescues Western Couple Held by Afghan Taliban

VOA - Friday 13th October, 2017

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's military announced Thursday it has rescued U.S. national Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle along with their three children from a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The couple went missing in Afghanistan in 2012 and the Afghan Taliban later claimed responsibility for abducting them. The group released two videos of the hostages. The insurgents had been demanding release of their prisoners in exchange for the two hostages who gave birth to the three children while in captivity.

A Pakistan military statement said that based on 'actionable intelligence from U.S.,' the rescue operation was conducted in the Kurram tribal region near the Afghan border on Wednesday.

'U.S. intelligence agencies had been tracking them and shared their shifting across to Pakistan on 11 Oct 2017 through Kurram Agency border,' it said.

The army statement added that the success underscored timely intelligence sharing and Pakistan's continued commitment towards fighting the menace 'of terrorism' through cooperation between two forces against a common enemy.'

Coleman, 31, and Boyle, 33, in their last video message released in December 2016, urged then-President-elect Donald Trump to negotiate with the Taliban to secure their release in return for the prisoners.

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